Investigation of Droplet-Ejection Characteristics for a Piezoelectric Inkjet Printhead

Abstract

Numerical simulations are performed to explore the droplet-ejection process for a piezoelectric inkjet printhead. In the analysis, the theoretical model takes account of a set of three-dimensional, time-dependent conservation equations of mass and momentum, with the incorporation of the continuous surface force model for treating the interfacial surface tension effect. The resultant governing equations are solved using an iterative semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations consistent algorithm for resolving flow properties. The volume-of-fluid method along with the piecewise linear-interface construction technique is implemented to characterize the behaviour of liquid surface movement. With a typical piezodiaphragm printhead as an illustration case, the time evolution of the gas-liquid interface is calculated for an entire ejection cycle of 164 μs. The predicted droplet shapes throughout the ejection process are compared with microphotographed images for the verification of the present theoretical formulation. The flow and transport phenomena in the stages of the ink ejection and the droplet formation are further examined in detail. In response to design needs, the study is extended to determine the variations of ejection characteristics at different settings of nozzle exit diameter, ejection time interval, surface tension, and viscosity of fluid.

Keywords

piezoelectric inkjet printhead inkjet printing process droplet behaviour

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Krestschmer

Tille

Ederer

A drop-on-demand inkjet printhead for a wide range of applications. IS&Ts NIP 14: 1997 International Conference on Digital printing technologies, Seattle, WA, 1997, pp. 343–347.

H. P.

Progress and trends in ink-jet printing technology. J. Imag. Sci. and Technol., 1998, 42 (1), 49–62.

Lee

F. C.

Mills

R. N.

Talke

F. E.

The application of drop-on-demand ink jet technology to color printing. IBM J. Res. Develop, 1984, 28 (3), 307–313.

Pimbley

W. T.

Drop formation from a liquid jet: A linear one-dimensional analysis considered as a boundary value problem. IBM J. Res. Develop, 1976, 20, 148–156.

Curry

S. A.

Portig

Scale model of an ink jet. IBM J. Res. Develop, 1977, 21 (2), 10–20.

Fromm

J. E.

Numerical calculations of the fluid dynamics of drop-on-demand jets. IBM J. Res. Develop, 1984, 28 (3), 322–333.

Adams

R. L.

Roy

A one-dimensional numerical model of a drop-on- demand ink jet. J. Appl. Mech., 1986, 53, 193–197.

Shield

T. W.

Bogy

D. B.

Talke

P. E.

Drop formation by DoD ink-jet nozzles: A comparison of experiment and numerical simulation. IBM J. Res. Develop, 1983, 31 (1), 96–110.

Hilbing

J. H.

Heister

S. D.

Droplet size control in liquid jet breakup. Phys. Fluids, 1996, 8 (6), 1574–1581.

10.

Chen

P. H.

Peng

H. Y.

Liu

H. Y.

Chang

S. L.

T. I.

Cheng

C. H.

Pressure response and droplet ejection of a piezoelectric inkjet printhead. Int. J. Mech. Sci., 1999, 41 (2), 235–248.

11.

Meinhart

C. D.

Zhang

The flow structure inside a microfabricated inkjet printhead. J. Micro-electromech. Syst., 2000, 9 (1), 67–75.

12.

Cheng

C. H.

Vibration plate design of a piezoelectric ink-jet printhead. J. Da-Yeh Univ., 2000, 10 (1), 21–27 (in Chinese).

13.

Rider

W. J.

Kothe

D. B.

Mosso

S. J.

Cerutti

J. H.

Hochstein

J. I.

Accurate solution algorithms for incompressible multiphase flows, AIAA 95–0699, Reno, NV, 1995, 18pp.

14.

Gueyffier

Nadim

Scardoovelli

Zaleski

Volume-of-fluid interface tracking with smoothed surface stress methods for three-dimensional flows. J. Comput. Phys., 1999, 152, 423–456.

15.

Delnoij

Kuipers

J. A. M.

Swaaij

W. P. M.

Computational fluid dynamics applied to gas-liquid contactors. Chem. Eng. Sci., 1997, 52 (21), 3623–3638.

16.

Kothe

D. B.

Rider

W. J.

Mosso

S. J.

Brock

J. S.

Hochstein

J. I.

Volume tracking of interfaces having surface tension in two and three dimensions. AIAA 96–0859, Reno, NV, 1996, 24pp.

17.

Meier

Yadigaroglu

Smith

B. L.

A novel technique for including surface tension in PLIC-VOF Methods. Eur. J. Mech. B Fluids, 2002, 21, 61–73.

18.

Brackbill

J. U.

Kothe

D. B.

Zemach

A continuum method for modeling surface tension. J. Comput Phys., 1998, 100, 335–354.

19.

Liou

T. M.

Shih

K. C.

Chau

S. W.

Chen

S. C.

Three-dimensional simulations of the droplet formation during the inkjet printing process. Int. Comm. Heat Mass Transfer, 2002, 29 (8), 1109–1118.

20.

Yeh

J. T.

A VOF-FEM and coupled inkjet simulation. In Proceedings of ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting, FEDSM2001-18182, New Orleans, LA, 2001, 5 pp.

21.

Pan

Kubby

Chen

Numerical simulation of fluid-structure interaction in a mems diaphragm drop ejector. J. Micromech. Microeng., 2002, 12, 70–76.

22.

CFD-ACE(U)a user's manual, version 6.6, 2001 (CFD Research Corporation), available from www.cfdrc.com.

23.

Patankar

S. V.

Numerical heat transfer and fluid flow, 1980 (Hemisphere, Washington DC).

24.

Van Doormaal

J. P.

Raithby

G. D.

Enhancements of the SIMPLE method for predicting incompressible fluid flows. Numer. Heat Transfer, 1984, 7, 147–163.

25.

Jang

D. S.

Jetli

Acharya

Comparison of the PISO, SIMPLER, and SIMPLEC algorithms for the treatment of the pressure-velocity coupling in steady flow problems. Numer. Heat Transfer, 1986, 10, 209–228.

26.

Reitz

R. D.

Bracco

F. V.

Breakup regimes of a single liquid jet. In Proceedings of Fall Technical Meeting, Eastern Section of the Combustion Institute, Philadelphia, November, 1976, 12pp.